Alternative Binary Protocol idea for memcached.

Brian Aker brian at tangent.org
Thu Feb 21 03:08:44 UTC 2008


Hi!

On Feb 21, 2008, at 8:12 AM, Clint Webb wrote:

> Would anyone object if I first started working on abstracting the  
> protocol handling routines so that they are handled by callback  
> instead of the current if/else setup?

When doing this, think about how to add arbitrary new callbacks for  
additional functions.

AKA for instance I can write a lock daemon set of commands, and let  
memcached handle it. Or for instance I want to add new language for a  
queue.

I believe either Gearman or another SA project was looking toward  
using the protocol in their next redesign.

Cheers,
	-Brian

>
>
> Then I was going to put all the protocol stuff in prot_ascii.h|c and  
> prot_binary.h|c respectively.
>
> This way we could potentially have hundreds of protocols handled  
> without having a lengthy if/else comparison.
>
> On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 10:06 AM, Clint Webb <webb.clint at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
> I wasn't expecting such a quick reply.  Good point about allowing  
> multiple protocols.  I might pull out some of my old code and see  
> how easy it is to drop in.
>
> I thought I'd give a little background on myself and this protocol  
> style. I used to work in the controls and automation industry.  If  
> you've ever checked your luggage into an airport, or sent anything  
> thru USPS, UPS or FedEX, or bought anything online from amazon, b&n  
> and other large online stores, or from Walmart, kmart, target,  
> etc... then your product has likely had some experience with my  
> coding somewhere along the line.
>
> I developed this protocol for a tiny little side-project for one of  
> the above mentioned companies.  It was basically a connector that  
> took information from a large number of different systems and passed  
> it to another.  The requirements changed a lot, so I developed  
> something that could be fast, but had to be flexible.  If I added a  
> feature to the server, I didn't want to be forced to update all the  
> clients as well.   Also, some of the clients were tiny little  
> embedded controllers, so it had to be pretty simple too.
>
> This solution was VERY fast, as all the commands are a single byte  
> and could be easily mapped to an array of callback routines.   This  
> protocol also had to run on a real-time system also, so we had to  
> ensure that all operations preformed in a predictable fashion.
>
> I seperated the commands by their parameter type.  0-31 had no  
> parameter.  32-63 had a single byte parameter.  64-95 had a 32-bit  
> parameter.  96-127 had a single-byte paramter which was the length  
> of a stream of data to follow (short-string).  128-159 had a 32-bit  
> integer that was the length of a stream of data to follow.   This  
> was our 5 different parameter types.  A command could only have one  
> parameter.
>
> This way, the IO handling code could retrieve all the necessary data  
> and then pass it off to a callback routine for that command.
>
> Each socket connection would have a set of buffers set aside for the  
> incoming data.  In this case we would want a buffer set aside to  
> hold the key and value data.
>
> To speed up processing and ensure that the minimum data set has been  
> provided, we used a 32-bit (or was it 64-bit?) word as flags.   Each  
> operation would set or clear a flag(s).   So when a GO command is  
> received, it can quickly determine what 'action' needs to take  
> place,  and which 'parameters' have been provided.
>
> If we ran out of room having to handle more than 256 commands, we  
> would use a command of 0xFF which would expect that the next byte  
> would be another command (from a set different to the first).  I  
> never actually implemented it though.  The most commands I ever used  
> was about 100 or so.
>
> I cant imagine that a variable-length structured protocol could be  
> much faster than that.  Still the emphasis of this protocol is not  
> so much on speed, but on flexibility to add functionality to the  
> protocol (by adding commands) without breaking existing clients (and  
> without having to handle multiple versions of the protocol).
>
> The 'noreply' stuff that I have seen around the list could probably  
> benefit from this protocol.  I haven't looked close enough at the  
> CAS stuff either, but I suspect that would be easy to implement too.
>
> Also, those that want to shave off a few extra bytes in their  
> client, have the option of sending a request that only includes the  
> bits they want.  If you care about expiry leave it out, same with  
> flags, tags, cas id's, and anything else.  Plus you can stream-line  
> some of your requests by not using the CLEAR command, and re-using  
> the state.
>
> Dang, if I had a little more time on my hands right now, I'd be  
> really tempted to implement it.   I don't actually have a *need* for  
> this protocol in memcached, it was purely an intellectual itch ever  
> since I saw people complaining about the existing protocols being  
> difficult to expand.
>
>
>
> On Feb 20, 2008 4:14 PM, Dustin Sallings <dustin at spy.net> wrote:
>
> On Feb 19, 2008, at 22:20, Clint Webb wrote:
>
> > I know a considerable amount of thought and work has gone into the
> > existing flavour of the binary protocol, and I dont expect that work
> > to be discarded, I'm really only mentioning this new concept now as
> > an alternative for the future if we ever find the current binary
> > protocol to be too restrictive and inflexible.  And something to
> > think about, or even use elsewhere.
>
>        The is certainly interesting.  The first step of doing the  
> binary
> protocol implementation was to create a change that allowed multiple
> protocols to coexist.  It would be possible to implement this to run
> in parallel with the existing protocols in the 1.3 codebase.
>
>        Intuitively, it doesn't seem as efficient to process as what  
> we've
> got now, but I like being proven wrong, so I'd welcome another front-
> end protocol.  :)
>
>        Of course, I wrote the majority of the current binary  
> protocol code
> about six months ago, so I'd really like to at least have one in more
> people's hands.
>
> --
> Dustin Sallings
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> "Be excellent to each other"
>
>
>
> -- 
> "Be excellent to each other"

--
_______________________________________________________
Brian "Krow" Aker, brian at tangent.org
Seattle, Washington
http://krow.net/                     <-- Me
http://tangent.org/                <-- Software
http://exploitseattle.com/    <-- Fun
_______________________________________________________
You can't grep a dead tree.




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